I have together with some colleagues built a 25 gallon brew set-up. The main concept was to have a large "pot" with a smaller basket inside to hold the malt. We then have a pump to recirculate the wort during mashing/lautering.
We started out trying to brew a wheat beer but from the second we started recirculating the mash was stuck... I know that there can be several causes for this, and one of them could be the recirculation rate. Our pump gives a flow of ~250 gallon/hour and that is probably way too much... I have found this article http://brewingtechniques.com/library....4/palmer.html which gives me a max recirculation rate of 1/4 gallon/minute. The diameter of my "basket" is 15 inch.
I would like to know what recirculation rate you experienced RIMS/HERMS brewers use?

I recirculate with my ball valve on the pump about half way open. I can go full open also without sticking the mash.

Im trying to figure out how you have a basket inside of a pot and recirculate. Im having trouble picturing that. I brew 25 gallon batches also and I just use stainless braid in my mash tun and have never had a stuck mash. The only reason I don't let my pump go full speed is because my HERMS wouldn't be as efficient.

*weep* *sniff* it's so beautiful... *sniff, sniff* What the heck do you ferment in? There is no way I would use 5 carboys per batch, you have a 30 gal Conical fermenter or something? And where do all of us non-pool-guy-knowing people get our hands on those 30 gal pool filter canisters? *FROTHS AT MOUTH* MAN! The way the lids slide open, is that the way they are or was that something you did?

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"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. They wake up in the morning and that's as good as they're going to feel all day." -Dean Martin

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheFlyingBeer

...no sense hauling empty carboys around when full ones take up just as much space. :)